Does Scottie Scheffler, who won the WM Phoenix Open and the Players Championship while amassing 17 top-10 finishes in 23 events, deserve the Jack Nicklaus Award? Or should it go to Jon Rahm, winner of four titles, two of which came back-to-back and one of which was the Masters for his second career major title?

“It depends what you value,” Rory McIlroy, a three-time winner of the award, said earlier in the week at East Lake. “I think it could come down to this week and who performs.”

It’s unlikely, however, that the results from the Tour Championship will influence players’ votes. Scheffler coughed up a two-shot pre-tournament lead to finish T-6 at 11 under. Rahm stumbled with a 74 Sunday to finish T-18 at seven under.

That’s not to take away from either player’s incredible season-long accomplishments.

Scheffler, 27, finished outside the top 12 just three times in his fourth season on tour. He also shared second at the PGA Championship and finished third at the US Open. Rahm, 28, had two runner-up results, one of which was a T-2 at the Open Championship, while he posting a T-10 at the US Open. For the season, the Spaniard had 10 top-10s.

While Scheffler has fewer wins, he ranked No. 1 in strokes gained/off the tee. He was also the best when approaching the green, gaining 1.3 strokes on the field per round with his irons. No other player, including No. 2 Collin Morikawa, gained more than 1.0. The 2.74 strokes Scheffler gained from tee to green was second only to Tiger Woods’ 2006 season, when he averaged 2.98 strokes.

“He’s hit the ball as good, if not better, than Tiger hit it in 2000, which is the benchmark for all of us,” McIlroy said.

But the Nicklaus Award is not about the ball-striker of the year. For many, it’s about winning, and majors weigh most heavily when casting their votes. Rahm has more of both this year.

“Because Rahm won a major and how hot Rahm’s year was, winning four alone in the calendar year and in the first four months, this year it’s got to be Rahmbo,” Tony Finau said at East Lake. “I still believe the hardest thing to do on tour is win; the second hardest thing is consistency. I’ve got to go with the guy who is winning more than the guy who is consistent.”

Added McIlroy: “Scottie’s won twice this year, Jon’s won four times. Jon’s won the Masters, Scottie’s won the Players. I think Jon probably has a little more to show for his year.”

But it’s not quite that clear. Rickie Fowler for one was still trying to make up his mind, sounding like he was leaning toward the consistency camp.
“If someone won two majors and another event and missed every other cut compared to someone who won three regular events and then played solidly throughout, you’d probably pick the one with the more consistent record,” Fowler said. “There’s such a value on majors, and that’s what you want to have a nice number in on your résumé at the end of your career, but I think a lot more goes into the overall package of consistent play. You can argue both sides.”

We’ll see which way more PGA Tour pros decided to lean when the winner next month.

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By Joel Beall
He was in the abyss, battered by injury and personal tragedy, unsure of where his career was headed or if he’d have a career at all. Five years into a comeback that continues to defy the odds he faced, Tuesday provided another mile marker in how far Patrick Cantlay has come from that crossroads.

Cantlay, still covered in fluorescence emitting from his FedEx Cup triumph, received further sparkle as he was named the 2021 PGA Tour Player of the Year.

Cantlay, 29, captured four official wins in the tour’s “super season,” including back-to-back playoff victories in the BMW Championship and Tour Championship, and those triumphs stood tall in a season in which no other player won more than twice. Also the winner of the 2020 Zozo Championship and 2021 Memorial, Cantlay recorded seven top-10s in 24 starts, finished second in regular-season earnings and third in strokes gained.

A former Haskins Award winner at UCLA who notched low-amateur honours at the Masters and U.S. Open, Cantlay turned pro in 2012 and won the 2013 Colombia Championship on the then-Web.com Tour, which helped him gain his PGA Tour card. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury that limited him to nine tournaments over the next three years while trying to resolve what eventually was diagnosed as a stress fracture in his L5 vertebrae. During this time, Cantlay also lost his caddie and best friend to a hit-and-run accident while the two were crossing a street in Newport Beach. Almost a year later, Cantlay made the cut at the 2017 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and earned full exempt status off a medical extension in just his second start back, thanks to a runner-up finish at the Valspar Championship.

Cantlay’s POY win is something of an upset, as Jon Rahm was considered the favourite to take home the award. Rahm led the tour in scoring, strokes gained and earnings, and finished T-8 or better in five of the season’s six majors—highlighted by winning the 2021 U.S. Open. His breakthrough at Torrey Pines was his only official victory, although Rahm tied for the low score shot over 72 holes at the Tour Championship, and had to withdraw after a positive COVID-19 test at the Memorial while holding a six-shot lead after 54 holes … a tournament eventually won by Cantlay.

The PGA Tour Player of the Year is voted on by PGA Tour members who played at least 15 official FedExCup events this season. The tour did not list who came in second, mentioning only Cantlay beat (alphabetically) Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English, Collin Morikawa and Rahm for the prize.

Cantlay’s win sets a new trend for Player of the Year honours. For 27 straight years the same player won both the PGA of America and PGA Tour Player of the Year awards. However, with Rahm winning the PGA of America’s POY last week, the previous three seasons have delivered different winners: Brooks Koepka took the PGA of America prize but Rory McIlroy got the nod from his PGA Tour peers in 2019, with Justin Thomas (PGA of America) and Dustin Johnson (PGA Tour) splitting in 2020.

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By Joel Beall
Jon Rahm finished second to Patrick Cantlay at East Lake on Sunday, but two days the World No. 1 is back on top.

On Tuesday the PGA of America announced Rahm as its Player of the Year.

Unlike the PGA Tour, which awards POY based on player voting, the PGA of America uses a year-long points formula to determine its winner, with tournament victories, official money standings, and scoring averages featured in its equation. Though Rahm technically has just one win to his name—if “just” can describe his breakthrough at the 2021 U.S. Open—he tied for the lowest score on the Tour Championship’s “shadow” leaderboard and held a six-stroke lead through 54 holes at the Memorial before a positive COVID-19 test knocked him out of the event … which was eventually won by Cantlay. Rahm also had five top-10 finishes in majors this season, whereas Cantlay’s best standing in the six marquee events was a T-15.

Rahm led the tour in scoring (earning the Vardon Trophy in the process), strokes gained and earnings, and racked up a whopping 15 top-10 finishes in just 22 starts. For context, no other player finished with double-digit top-10 finishes this season.

Cantlay’s four wins—the 2020 Zozo Championship, 2021 Memorial, 2021 BMW Championship and 2021 FedEx Cup—stand tall in a season where no other player won more than twice. Yet Cantlay actually finished third in the PGA of America’s point system, with Bryson DeChambeau coming in second. Collin Morikawa, who captured the 2021 Open, finished in fourth.

Could this telegraph a victory for Rahm in the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year? For 27 straight years the same player won both the PGA of America and PGA Tour Player of the Year awards. However, the previous two seasons have delivered different winners; Brooks Koepka took the PGA of America prize but Rory McIlroy got the nod from his PGA Tour peers in 2019, with Justin Thomas (PGA of America) and Dustin Johnson (PGA Tour) splitting honours in 2020.

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By Golf Digest Staff
Jon Rahm was nine holes away from winning the Northern Trust, and with it Rahm would have secured Player of the Year. But Rahm stumbled down the stretch at Liberty National, and a mere 13 days later the POY title is very much a debate with Patrick Cantlay inserting himself in the conversation with a torrid finish to win the FedEx Cup.

Is Cantlay’s playoff run, coupled with wins at the Memorial and Zozo, enough to capture the award? Does Rahm’s body of work, highlighted by a breakthrough at the U.S. Open, give him the honors? How much should Collin Morikawa be penalized for a rough postseason? Is there a viable case for anyone else? Our Golf Digest writers weigh in with their choices for Player of the Year?

Shane Ryan: As a stats nerd, this one is extremely easy for me—it’s Jon Rahm. He led the Tour in strokes gained, and he led the Tour in scoring average. This means, divorced from any other concerns, he was pound-for-pound the best golfer of the season. It doesn’t mean he should be golfer of the year, at least by itself, but it does mean that if he won a major, which he did, somebody else better have done something spectacular to overtake him. Patrick Cantlay won the FedExCup, but he didn’t win a major. Collin Morikawa won a major and a WGC, but he faded at the end of the season and his numbers weren’t as good as Rahm’s. Hideki Matsuyama won a major but never put his stamp on the year with a second victory or godlike stats. Phil Mickelson won a major, and, well…that’s about it.

Rahm didn’t win another event either after the U.S. Open, but he tied for the best 72-hole score at the Tour Championship with Kevin Na, he would have won the Memorial if not for a positive COVID test, and he had 15 top tens when nobody else even had ten. There are usually some very good debates when it comes to the player of the year race, but I don’t see 2021 as anything but definitive. It’s Rahm; any other answer is a stretch.

Alex Myers: Cantlay is going to win Player of the Year. The precedent was set when a major-less FedEx Cup champ Rory McIlroy beat Brooks Koepka in 2019. That doesn’t make it right.

Cantlay was incredible down the stretch and wound up with twice as many wins as anyone, plus the FedEx Cup, but it was Rahm who played the best over the entire season by virtually every other metric. In addition to his U.S. Open win, he had as many top 10s as Cantlay and Morikawa combined. Oh, and if you give him credit for a win at the Memorial where he was playing arguably his best golf of the year before a 54-hole WD (and take Cantlay’s win there away), his two wins including a major easily trumps Cantlay’s three. And for those who think winning the playoffs should be the clincher, isn’t taking home $15 million enough of a prize?

Daniel Rapaport: It’s Rahm, and it’s really not that close. The only argument against his candidacy are wins, golf’s equivalent of rings. If Rahm had three or even two, this wouldn’t even be a conversation. I fully understand that he didn’t win the Memorial or this week’s Tour Championship. The record books leave no room for interpretation, which is fine. I also fully understand that he led by six after 54 in Columbus and lost to nobody this week in Atlanta. Those two things—he didn’t win, but I know he played the best—can and do exist at the same time. Subjective votes like these ask us to use our brains, not the record books. Ask yourself: who was the best player this year? We all know the answer.

Joel Beall: Rory-over-Brooks should be viewed as an aberration rather than precedent. (Or as revenge, the tour’s punishment for Koepka calling the majors the only weeks that matter. We kid. We think.) Cantlay missed the cut at the 2021 Masters and Open Championship, and his best finish out of this superseason’s six majors was a T-15 at the 2021 U.S. Open … won by the very man he’s competing against for the award in question. Throw in failing to make the weekend at the Players and it is incongruent to give Player of the Year to someone who didn’t show up for the biggest events on the calendar.

That doesn’t mean Rahm gets our nonexistent vote, however. While we agree with the theoreticals about the Memorial and Tour Championship, they are just that, theoreticals, and the hard truth is Rahm has a lone win to his name. Morikawa? A great year … just not great enough (20th in scoring, 25th in strokes gained). All of which is a long-winded way of writing our choice is Bryson DeChambeau.

No, this isn’t a take strictly to be contrarian. To DeChambeau’s credit, he did bag Winged Foot and Bay Hill while finishing second in strokes gained and fourth in scoring. But no one commandeered this 50-event stretch like the big beefy man. He challenged our idea of what tour golf should be and where it is going and how it is discussed. He was a weekly storyline, not always in the manner or vein he wanted, yet there’s no doubting Bryson the player and personality was a constant in our lives, and with Tiger on the sidelines, he has become the sport’s main attraction. In good ways and bad and occasionally odd, this was the Season of Bryson.

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By Ryan Herrington
For the second time in his career, Justin Thomas has earned PGA of America’s Player of the Year award.

After closing out the FedEx Cup title on Monday at East Lake Golf Club, the question arose as to whether Dustin Johnson’s recent run in the PGA Tour Playoffs (win-second-win in the three events) was enough to push him over the finish line in the Player of the Year race.

The early answer? Not necessarily.

On Tuesday, the PGA of America announced Justin Thomas had earned its POY award, which is determined via a points-based system. Thomas garnered 66 points, outpacing runner-up Jon Rahm by 10. Finishing third was Collin Morikawa (54) and fourth was Webb Simpson (52).

And what about DJ? Well, he came in fifth at 42 points.

The formula that the PGA of America uses gives players points for PGA Tour wins (10 for each, 30 for a major), where they finished on the money list and where they ranked in the overall scoring (first place gets you 20, second gets 18, third 16, etc.).

Here’s how the scoring breakdown works.

Interestingly, the PGA of America did not credit Johnson for his Tour Championship title (instead giving the 10 points to Xander Schauffele, who shot the lowest score for four rounds at East Lake but finished tied for second when accounting for the pre-tournament stroke adjustment). Even if you added another 10 points to DJ’s overall total, he still wouldn’t have passed Thomas for the title.

Whether Thomas’ PGA of America honour might influence the outcome of the PGA Tour’s POY award, determined by a vote of tour members, is unclear. For 27 straight years, the same player won both awards, until 2019, when Brooks Koepka took the PGA of America prize but Rory McIlroy got the nod from his PGA Tour peers. Koepka had won two majors last year, but McIlroy beat him in the FedEx Cup race.

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By Joel Beall
To the shock of many, including himself, Rory McIlroy was named the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year. Not as surprising is the debate that has subsequently ensued.

This was supposed to be Brooks Koepka’s honour. He already grabbed the PGA of America’s Player of the Year award, and it had been 28 years since the winner of one wasn’t the winner of both. Even McIlroy acknowledged Koepka’s eventual crowning after beating him at Tour Championship last month. “He’s had a great season,” McIlroy said at East Lake. “He’s won another major, he’s won three times. And I know it’s going to sting because he most likely will win the Player of the Year, but he didn’t win the FedEx Cup.”

Yet on Wednesday afternoon it was McIlroy, not Koepka, who PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced as the winner, to a largely baffled golf world.

This is not a swipe at McIlroy’s résumé or merits. That is a separate discussion. The puzzlement here is directed elsewhere: Who voted for Rory over Brooks?

As a refresher, the PGA of America’s honour is determined based on a points system. The PGA Tour, though, relies on player voting, with members who played in at least 15 FedEx Cup events during the 2018-’19 season casting the ballots. That process is handled internally; the tour does not publicly release the results.

Or, apparently, privately release them either. Given the election’s concealment, the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson asked McIlroy during Wednesday’s media conference call if he knew how close the race had finished. “I inquired,” McIlroy said, “and they are keeping tight-lipped on that.” The call, just seven questions deep, was ended.

In itself, the vote could be chalked up as an anomaly. There were several pundits who argued on McIlroy’s behalf after East Lake, including some here, even if most noted that their arguments had flaws. Plus, there is a reason sports are so compelling; the outcome is never guaranteed. Still, the vote, and its clandestine nature, hints at something more problematic.

For all the PGA Tour does well, transparency isn’t one of them.

Though fans and media are often victims of the moment, this sentiment isn’t necessarily a case of recency bias. Monahan’s predecessor, Tim Finchem, once stated, “We don’t think the fans really want to know about most of the stuff we would be talking about,” and that ethos, at times, continues to ring true. From player fines to PEDs and drug enforcement to equipment and slow play policing, the tour continues to play things close to the vest.

All this explains, in part, why some on social channels questioned the vote after Wednesday’s announcement. Conspiracy theorists say a win for McIlroy was a win for the tour schedule’s relevancy versus the importance of major championships, events in which the tour has no official jurisdiction. Such speculation may be ridiculous, but it’s an environment the tour hasn’t helped temper.

As for the Player of the Year award, the tour brass has its reasons for not revealing the overall tally. It could be to mask feeble participation or protect players who received low vote totals from embarrassment. Although noble causes, they are the same excuses the Baseball Writers’ Association of America—the group that elects the sport’s Hall of Fame—trotted out to protect its voting privacy, believing public votes would hurt its relationships with franchises and front offices.

That is until 2016, when, after decades of fan and player outcry, the BBWAA acquiesced and released its votes to the public. Granted, the Hall of Fame reversed that decision, yet more and more voters since the referendum have made their ballots available to all, using their write-ins to spur the movement, as content and discussion pieces, and most importantly, to shield themselves from calls of malfeasance.

Considering the perceived open-and-shut complexion of this year’s vote, it is a framework the tour and its constituents should consider going forward. After all, in his state-of-the-tour address at East Lake, Monahan insisted the tour is “Not stuck in our ways.”

“It’s about our organisation putting a system in place that allows us to improve and ultimately helps excite those people that are going to watch and mimic the great players in the world,” Monahan said. “But not everything is going to be perfect and you’ve got to identify the areas you can improve.”

Here’s one they can start with.

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Shortly after McIlroy was announced as the winner by a vote of his peers, the tour shared video of the four-time major champ being informed of his latest award by 18-time major champ Jack Nicklaus, whose name adorns the tour’s POY trophy. We’re guessing McIlroy must have thought something was up with Nicklaus and a bunch of cameras there, but he seemed genuinely stunned to learn the result and later said he was, “at a loss for words,” in a teleconference with reporters. Anyway, here’s the funny exchange:

“I’ve got goosebumps.”

No one better to surprise @McIlroyRory with the Jack Nicklaus Award than @JackNicklaus himself. ?#LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/cK28uMu8WY

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 11, 2019

NICKLAUS: “They’ve got one other one they thought they’d bring out for you today.”

MCILROY: “That’s the Nicklaus Trophy. I’ve already got two of those.”

NICKLAUS: “You’ve got three now.”

MCILROY: “Really?”

Yep, really, Rory. Funny, we’re guessing Brooks said the same thing.

RELATED: Jack Nicklaus shows he still has magic touch with amazing winning putt

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By Joel Beall
In a shocking development, Rory McIlroy was named the PGA Tour Player of the Year overnight. McIlroy, 30, captured the honour over Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele and Matt Kuchar.

The award, which is voted on by PGA Tour members who played in at least 15 FedEx Cup events during the 2018-’19 season, apparently favoured McIlroy’s consistency over Koepka’s performance on the premier stages.

“I’m very humbled and very honoured,” McIlroy said. “It validates some of the decisions I made to start the year, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

McIlroy racked up a tour-best 14 top-10s in 19 events, highlighted by wins at the RBC Canadian Open, Tour Championship and the tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship. McIlroy also won the Byron Nelson Award for adjusted scoring average (69.057) for the third time in his career, and his 2.551 strokes gained were the best non-Tiger Woods figure in the statistic’s history. This is McIlroy’s third Player of the Year award, and his first since 2014.

“On behalf of the PGA Tour, my congratulations to Rory McIlroy on being voted the 2019 PGA Tour Player of the Year by the tour’s membership,” said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. “Rory’s season was a model of consistency punctuated by milestone victories and ultimately the FedEx Cup in Atlanta.”

Despite McIlroy’s strong output throughout the year, Koepka—who was named the PGA of America Player of the Year weeks ago—was thought by most to be the clear front-runner to win the award. That included McIlroy. After defeating Koepka at the 30-player Tour Championship for the FedEx Cup, the Ulsterman acknowledged that Koepka was the likely Player of the Year.

“He’s had a great season. He’s won another major, he’s won three times. And I know it’s going to sting because he most likely will win the Player of the Year, but he didn’t win the FedEx Cup,” McIlroy said following his victory in East Lake. “So I know it’s going to sting him for a bit, but I just wanted to tell him he’s playing so good. He’s the No. 1 player in the world, and he’s had a great season, and he said something similar to me, just happy for me.”

Koepka added his fourth major victory at the PGA Championship in May, building a seven-shot lead to hold off a surging Dustin Johnson at Bethpage Black. Koepka became the first player to defend both the PGA and the U.S. Open in a career, and joined Woods, Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen as the other players to defend two different majors. The win moved Koepka to No. 1 in the World Ranking, a spot that he continues to hold.

Koepka added runner-up finishes at the Masters and U.S. Open, along with a T-4 at the Open Championship, joining Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Jordan Spieth as the only players to finish top four or better at every major in a calendar year. For his part, McIlroy had two top-10s at the majors and missed the cut at the Open Championship.

But Brooks’ season was more than the marquee events. Koepka notched wins at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and C.J. Cup, and posted nine top-10s in 2019. Koepka led the tour in official money and was fourth in scoring. He won the inaugural Wyndham Rewards, which acknowledges the tour’s regular-season FedEx Cup points leader. He finished in a tie for third in the season-ending FedEx Cup/Tour Championship.

“Look, Brooks has had an incredible year,” McIlroy said. “This speaks volumes to what PGA Tour players think is important. I’ve harped on this: Players think more than just four weeks are important.”

This is the first time in 28 years the PGA Tour and PGA of America Player of the Year awards haven’t gone to the same golfer, and just third time overall. In 1991, Corey Pavin and Fred Couples shared the honours, with Nick Faldo and Wayne Levi doing the same in 1990.

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By Joel Beall
Eighteen months ago Brooks Koepka was the owner of a lone PGA Tour win. His trophy mantle has filled up considerably since. Koepka added another honour overnight, receiving the Jack Nicklaus Trophy for PGA Tour Player of the Year.

Koepka, who earned his career breakthrough at Erin Hills in 2017, followed with an impressive showing this campaign, becoming the first player since Curtis Strange to defend the U.S. Open title, overcoming brutal conditions and a charging Tommy Fleetwood to win at Shinnecock. The 28-year-old nabbed his third career major at Bellerive, setting a PGA Championship scoring record to secure the Wanamaker.

Koepka also posted runner-up finishes at the WGC-HSBC Champions and Fort Worth Invitational to go along with four other top 10s, despite missing 10 weeks due to an injured wrist. He finished fifth on the money list with $7,094,047 and ninth in FedEx Cup standings.

“On behalf of the PGA Tour, our congratulations to Brooks Koepka on being voted PGA Tour Player of the Year by his peers,” said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan in a statement. “Brooks has brought a new brand of athleticism to the PGA Tour, and we saw the results this year with his historic season at the major championships and a top-10 finish in the FedExCup. These feats were accomplished despite missing significant time due to injury, a testament to his work ethic and perseverance throughout the season.”

Koepka, who reached a career-best No. 2 in the OWGR, was selected for the award over Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Francesco Molinari, Justin Rose and Justin Thomas. He continues a trend of first-time Player of the Year winners, with Rory McIlroy the last repeat champ in 2014.

Koepka had already received the PGA of America Player of the Year, which is awarded on a points-based system.

PGA Tour members who played in at least 15 FedExCup events during the 2017-18 season were eligible to vote. The balloting process ended on October 1.

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